October 7, 2011
Trapping; Today's
Market Hunting
Recently,
I was asked to provide arguments to counter the claims "contending that
trapping and selling fur is like the market hunting of old". As I finished drafting my response it dawned
on me that others might find my overview of interest and value. With this in mind, I offer my thoughts on
market hunting, trapping today and the animal rights movement.
"To
your question, market hunting and trapping have one thing in common; wildlife
is / was harvested for financial gain. This is where any similarity ends. Market hunting was unregulated, unrestricted
and unsustainable. The outcome of market
hunting birthed the departments of game and fish across the nation and the Fish
and Wildlife Service in Washington. Wildlife Management, as a profession, too
can find its roots in the aftermath of the market hunter. Trapping, hunting and fishing are all now
highly regulated and are practiced in a very sustainable way. Conservation, despite the global misuse of
the word by the press and preservation groups, deals with the wise use of our
natural resources not their non-use. Outdoorsman have supported wildlife management
/ conservation with their dollars and time for over a century. They have embraced license fees, habitat
stamps and excise taxes for the purposes of maintaining the overall health of
our wildlife and ecosystems for all people.
The message from the other side is one of complete sophistry, plain and
simple. It is based purely on a belief
(thou shall not kill) not science and not reality. Because of this our arguments will never
alter the zealots opinions any more than the Pope could change the mindset of a
devout atheist. Short, simple scientific
/ constitutional arguments will win the day with the non-trapping non-animal
rightist public, because these reasons can be supported with facts and data,
ergo these arguments are righteous.
Trappers
and agency managers / overseers should make no excuses for killing animals for
the sale of the pelts, glands, skulls, other "parts" and in some
areas, as meat for human consumption. Our
wildlife is an annually renewable resource.
As such, non-harvest of nature's
built in surpluses would be simply wasteful and counterproductive to the overall
management of the ecosystem and to the general health of the people. People are inherently repulsed with the
concept of wanton waste. Likewise they
greatly dislike killing animals to throw them into pits or bar ditches. Yet this would be and in some cases has been,
the only alternative to managed harvest. Today the majority of European countries
consider furbearers as pests. In
Holland, for example, muskrats are killed by any manner or method and left to
rot; unutilized, they are wasted.
Proudly, this is not the way of America's trappers and wildlife
managers. Globally, society has rejected the notion of
barbarism and cruelty relative to trapping; in spite of forty years of one
sided reporting and continuous spiteful attacks by the animal rightists, fur sales are at all time highs.
The
utopia of prey staying in "their place" and predators only killing
the old, weak and excess numbers is as untruthful as the moniker of bone
crushing traps. Man is here and in ever
increasing numbers. We have altered the earth
and these changes will continue; it is our role in the greater scheme of
things. In order to sustain our
ecosystems we must use our knowledge and tools to balance the effects of our
existence with our surroundings and wildlife.
In North America, this task was laid at the feet of the
outdoorsman. We have willingly
shouldered the responsibility for generations.
Look where we are today. Wildlife
and wild places abound. Species have
been restored to their historic range. The
river otter and wolves were all caught
with foothold traps for relocation. Hunters,
trappers and fisherman started this movement and nurtured it to is current
level; I'm proud to say I had a hand in building our heritage, as I am certain
are you. On the other side, "come lately" groups use their lies
to raise money and sympathy from the unsuspecting public and spend these
dollars on high salaries for themselves, not on the wildlife or the ecosystem
for all.
Reasonable
folks care that others are being ethical and are transparent. Trappers, by nature, hide things and their
actions; they are secretive. They are so,
out of the necessity to accomplish the goal of catching the animals they seek
and to keep captured animals hidden and calm.
Secondarily, we hide our equipment and catches to avoid theft and
vandalism. It is precisely because of
these learned behaviors that trappers have done a poor job of educating the
public and in some cases other trappers.
In recent years, however, trappers have taken on the task of showing that
we are ethical; we do concern ourselves with the welfare of our catches. State and national trapping associations in
concert with various governmental agencies and the fur industry have undertaken
trap testing and numerous public
relation projects. The Best Management
Practice (BMPs) and the "Destroying the Myth" productions are good
examples of this commitment. Locally,
trappers are manning booths at public events in ever increasing numbers to pass
on and promote our trapping heritage. We
are ethical and we are working on becoming completely transparent. Through our
efforts we have shown, following strict scientific protocols, that our
equipment and methods simply do not physically harm the animals we capture and
in so doing have shown the animal rightists to be the liars that they clearly
are. Unfortunately, as with all human
endeavors, there are some who for whatever reason, are flawed in thought and
practice. These few proverbial
"rotten apples" get all the media focus and therefore must be dealt
with effectively; we remain vigilant in this regard.
The
church of the Animal Rightist has been selling the public their message of
cruel and barbaric trapping and more generally their "thou shall not kill
anything" theme for nearly fifty years.
These labels are arbitrary and not supported by fact. Their message is religious in nature, in
that it is a belief. It is not based in any
way, shape or form on science, knowledge or reality. Rather, inherent in their message is man's
superiority over nature and obviously he can lift himself above the bonds of
biology and reality. All life on earth is
sustained from the energy of the sun which drives the life processes of all
plants. This captured / transformed solar energy (whether it be food stuffs,
fiber or fossil fuel) is consumed in cyclical fashion by all the animals and other
non-photosynthetic life forms on the planet, including man. Man being capable of cognitive thought and
reason can and should conduct himself in a manner which mitigates the
detriments of his existence. But he
cannot and should not think that he is all powerful and therefore able to
separate himself from the web of life; that thought process is unquestionably
and terminally flawed.
Consumptive use is the basis of life on earth and
wise use is the meaning of conservation.
Outdoorsman, and those that work the land are the true
conservationist. We fully understand
that to ensure life as we know it, we must use our resources in a sustainable renewable
way. We put our money, time, effort,
energy and lives where our mouths are; talk is cheap, we know this and that is
why we act.
Trapping is an integral portion of the overall
management plan for our wildlife.
Trapping and for that matter hunting are not sports.
Trapping is a way of life. Today
few make their entire livelihood from trapping, many make a portion of their
annual income harvesting furbearers for pelts or depredation control while most
trappers are best classified as hobbyist.
Regardless, trapping is an important activity for the participants,
landowners, wildlife agencies, wildlife and, in fact, the public in general.
Outdoorsman,
farmers and ranchers are people that chose to embrace life for what it is and
participate in it fully. We understand
the cycles of nature and we accept their consequences. We are not cruel or barbaric because we kill,
we simply are fully engaged with life.
Should we always seek to better our actions and relationships with other
life? Of course we should and we have
and we do. In the end, however, death is
inevitable. Death is the beginning of
all new life. We cannot change this and
we should not try. "
Sincerely;
Tom
McDowellLegislative
Liaison, New Mexico Trappers Association
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